Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Vantage
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Vantage »

landsurfer wrote:When you are punted off your bike, into the path of an HGV ... My Learned Friend will say " Distraction, lack of concentration, without due care and attention " ...


This is why we need to ride a fair distance from the kerb and not ride in the gutter. It's also why rear view mirrors and/or shoulder checks are important. Hearing alone cannot be relied on. Electric cars are virtually silent when running.

I have had to take serious avoiding action while driving to miss joggers that just jumped off the path with the " headphones of death " attached.
You need to be spatially aware when cycling ...


Again, nothing to do with head/earphones but lack of paying attention. You don't cross the road without looking to see if it's safe first.

As said before, deaf people ride bikes. And run.
Bill


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Stradageek
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Stradageek »

I'm clearly a contradiction in terms, I never listen to music whilst cycling because I 'see' with my ears and find it far too much of a distraction, yet I also never wear a helmet - each to their own.

Apart from the distraction I find I prefer to take time to listen to music, the subtleties of Miles Davis are lost in noisy headphones

However, as noted above, I think the forum has been here before and no firm conclusion was reached last time - so why am I bothering posting again?

I'm clearly a contradiction in terms
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meic
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by meic »

Apart from the distraction I find I prefer to take time to listen to music, the subtleties of Miles Davis are lost in noisy headphones


That still leaves you with the time on the bike where you could listen to even more music.

I very much enjoy listening to my music as part of my bike ride but I can also forget and ride as much as 10 miles before I realise that I havent turned it on. Because most of the time I am contemplating other things during the times when the riding is not at all demanding.
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Cunobelin
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Cunobelin »

THIS is a bike mounted speaker system

Image
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Cunobelin
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Cunobelin »

This is an interesting article on how the AA and Edmund King have established the "myth" of the Zombie iPod using pedestrian / cyclist with no actual evidence whatsoever
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Cunobelin
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Cunobelin »

landsurfer wrote:When you are punted off your bike, into the path of an HGV ... My Learned Friend will say " Distraction, lack of concentration, without due care and attention " ...
I have had to take serious avoiding action while driving to miss joggers that just jumped off the path with the " headphones of death " attached.
You need to be spatially aware when cycling ... or the Darwin syndrome will take over ....
My car has no hands free, I don't have my phone turned on when driving, the satnav and radio cannot be turned on or adjusted unless the vehicle is stationary. ....
We make choices......


Research has shown that there is a decrease in the ability to distinguish ambient sound when using headphones at a medium volume

The same research showed that drivers have the same hearing deficit when they close their windows.

Does the "Darwin syndrome" take effect when drivers close their windows?
Do drivers not need to be spatially aware?

Do we really to heavily criticise the next driver who fails to stop at a junction because the "Windows of Death" were closed


Why if it is so dangerous to compromise one's hearing in this way do we allow drivers to close their windows?
Stradageek
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Stradageek »

Interestingly, in unfamiliar or confusing locations I always wind the windows down when driving so that I'm more aware of the surroundings, always wondered why I did it.
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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

Forget where I read it, but some testing done in the States showed users riding with typical ear-bud headphones experienced less auditory exclusion than a driver in a conventional car simply driving with the windows up and stereo switched off. If that's true, I can't see what the problem is, though I don't partake myself. My hearing is none too clever anyway, as my time in the Army was spent long before they issued ear plugs or owt.
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landsurfer
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by landsurfer »

Rather than just rubbishing someone's post ... reply positively ... oops, sorry wrong forum .... :)

With you Lance, 7.62 FMJ and Nimrods, Vulcans, Phantoms and Tornados gave me my hearing issues .... Your never alone with tinnitus ......
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Be more Mike.
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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

Yeah, FAI here. Hearing in my right ear is in tatters. Got about 4 grand compo in the mid 90s as part of a mass settlement.

I'm ok in normal conditions, but cos my higher frequency hearing is in tatters I'm deaf as a post if I go to a noisy environment like a pub.

Anyway, I don't hear too good and I've not found myself mown down because of it.
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reohn2
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by reohn2 »

Lance Dopestrong wrote:Yeah, FAI here. Hearing in my right ear is in tatters. Got about 4 grand compo in the mid 90s as part of a mass settlement.

I'm ok in normal conditions, but cos my higher frequency hearing is in tatters I'm deaf as a post if I go to a noisy environment like a pub.

Anyway, I don't hear too good and I've not found myself mown down because of it.


That could be because you've adjusted your actions to counteract the deficit in your hearing,possibly without realising it,by extra use of you eyes,much as the vast majority of motorists do whilst driving a car with the windows wound up.Whereas with ear buds in a sense is lessened and replaced by a possible distraction
The difference IMHO with riding with headphones/ear buds in,is that the cyclist is a the 'bottom of the food chain' and on UK roads an aggressive food chain at that.
IME you just don't know where the next aggressive/stupid/thoughtless act is coming from,so why lessen your chances of anticipating when riding.
I believe listening to music or whatever,through inserted head phone/earbud devices whilst cycling,removes one sense from my reading of such situations.
YVMV.
Last edited by reohn2 on 31 May 2016, 3:20pm, edited 1 time in total.
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meic
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by meic »

That could be because you've adjusted your actions to counteract the deficit in your hearing,possibly without realising it,by extra use of you eyes,much as the vast majority of motorists do whilst driving a car with the windows wound up.


What makes you think that cyclists with headphones on are not as capable as ex-soldiers and drivers of making the same adjustments?
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reohn2
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by reohn2 »

meic wrote:
That could be because you've adjusted your actions to counteract the deficit in your hearing,possibly without realising it,by extra use of you eyes,much as the vast majority of motorists do whilst driving a car with the windows wound up.


What makes you think that cyclists with headphones on are not as capable as ex-soldiers and drivers of making the same adjustments?


Some/majority/minority/element may well do.Who's to know what the that proportion of cyclists are?
Not only are they lessening their hearing but replacing the ability of their hearing with another sound,another experience that can lull them elsewhere mindfully,which can also be said for driving whilst listening to music/the radio/a play,etc.
The difference is,the cyclist is always at the sticky end of the deal and as I said previously UK roads can be a pretty aggressive place for cyclists,switching from full hearing to muted hearing and music is going to put a cyclist at a disadvantage on top of his her disadvantage by cycling with full hear ability.
It's a risk I don't wish to take,nor do I wish to listen to music when riding as I find it's a distraction from the joy cycling gives me.
If you wish to wear earbuds(which I know you do)be my guest,all I'm pointing out are the possible downsides,you appear to say there are none,which is where YVV's.

BTW i was editing my previous post whilst you were typing.
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reohn2
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by reohn2 »

Anecdote alert:-
On the cyclepaths and towpaths I ride regularly,I'm always amazed at the number of people who can't hear my shouts to them as I approach from behind,these are usually though not exclusively young twentysomething's either jogging or walking,an a number of them nearly jump out of their skins when I get along side them.
I put this down to volume too high or just being somewhere in 'music world' or both,and I honestly feel they're putting themselves at risk from mugging,which is almost none existent in the area TBH.
Obviously I don't know the proportion of cyclists that are similarly afflicted when using earbuds,etc,but if it's the same proportion as pedestrians there's a problem for them in traffic.
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meic
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Re: Ear/headphones and listening to music?

Post by meic »

,and I honestly feel they're putting themselves at risk from mugging,which is almost none existent in the area TBH.

Just so long as you dont think they may be putting themselves at risk of another sort of attack, you can think/say that.
Yma o Hyd
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